BU Institute on Iraq Launches

Former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker spoke at first lecture

| From BU Today | By Rich Barlow

Ryan Crocker, ambassador to Iraq during the Iraq War, was a pivotal figure in the war. Photo courtesy of Texas A&M University

With the last American troops in Iraq exiting next year and security already improved, opportunities for safe, scholarly research there may multiply, according to educators. The new BU Institute for Iraqi Studies, which debuted on November 17, hopes to create academic links to the troubled nation.

“The establishment of the institute is a tremendously important initiative,” Crocker says. Referring to a speech in which President Obama declared troop withdrawals a commitment to “turn the page” on Iraq, Crocker says he’s “concerned Americans read that as not just turning a page, but closing the book on Iraq,” showering indifference on “a country of vital strategic importance to the region and the United States.”

The institute will work to keep attention focused on Iraq and also “is going to be a vehicle, I think, to coordinate academic travel to Iraq,” he says.

Among its activities, the institute will bring Iraqi fellows to BU for a semester or a year, addressing Iraq’s concern that few of its young professors “have been exposed to the setting of a world-class university,” says the institute’s founding director, Augustus R. Norton, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of international relations and of anthropology. Crocker’s lecture was the first in what is planned as an annual series, and the institute will run periodic workshops and conferences as well. It also will offer PhD research fellowships in the humanities and social sciences, open to any BU doctoral student researching contemporary Iraq. Norton says the institute will begin soliciting applications in 2012.

Because of Saddam Hussein’s repressive Baath Party regime and then the war deposing it, scholars were denied safe access to Iraq for years, Norton says. While lingering disorder from the U.S. invasion still makes work risky, “sites that have long been closed to foreign researchers are now becoming accessible.” Indeed, the idea for the institute came to Norton during a research trip to Iraq last fall, when he found keen interest in BU’s academic reputation among Iraqi educators.

The institute’s mission is to “encourage scholarly collaboration between Iraqi scholars and BU counterparts and to help shape the scholarly agenda on Iraq, he says. Crocker recalls that as ambassador, during his talks with Iraqi educators, they were, “without exception, desirous of links with U.S. universities.”

The institute has secured five years of funding from the Independent Development Council in Iraq, a quasi-governmental agency supporting community and human development projects, most of them in Iraq. Having the agency support a United States–based venture “is a unique situation,” says Norton.

A five-time ambassador to the Middle East (Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon) during four decades in the Foreign Service, Crocker has won numerous awards, including America’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was educated at Whitman College in his home state of Washington.

Following eight months of disagreement and paralysis, Iraqi leaders this month agreed to form a government under Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

“There are enormous challenges that Iraq faces,” he says. “The good news is that, so far, they are solving political problems with political means, without resorting to the violence we saw in 2006 and 2007.”

“I don’t know how it’s going to go. That part of the book has yet to be written. I think it will have a considerable amount to do with how engaged we stay, and I think that’s another reason why this institute is important.”

Print:

Share:

Email:

*Your Name:

*Your Email:

The content of this field is not retained.

*Friend's Email:

Enter multiple email addresses separated with commas.

Your Comments:

Comments

On 23 January 2011 at 9:34 PM, Edwin Thomas Chapman wrote:

While working for two years in Mosul, Iraq (2003-04) under a US Government contract in support of local government development, I utilized key faculty at the University of Mosul to assist in the implementation of the program. I am still in contact with some of these professors and wonder how they would access the fellowship program at Boston University.

On 16 December 2010 at 9:43 PM, Chris Quimby (CFA'97) wrote:

I am an Army National Guard black hawk pilot serving in Iraq and a 1997 graduate of BU. Although I live in Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, I am in several different downtown locations everyday. No one has told Al Queda the war is over. "Academic travel to Iraq" is a dangerous notion, more dangerous than politicians and academics may be willing to allow a candidate for this program to believe. If you decide to study here, you will need a high capacity rifle with 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Bring body armor, balistic eye wear, hearing protection and kevlar helmet. Bring a sturdy backpack for your books and much needed tourniquets. Bring lots of imodium. Please don't walk the streets or drive on the roads. Be safe and good luck.

Post Your Comment

Your Name:

*Email:

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

School:

Year:

*Comment:

* CaptchaWhich is lightest? elephant, cat, moon, tissue

JavaScript is required to submit comments to Bostonia.

Persons who post comments are solely responsible for the content of their messages. Bostonia reserves the right to delete or edit messages.